The West’s betrayal of Israel is shameful

When the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defence minister Yoav Gallant, Rishi Sunak condemned the decision and said that the UK would lodge a legal challenge.

In a shameful abnegation of Britain’s moral duty to an ally engaged in an existential war, the new Labour Government has now cast this policy. aside. Following on from the decision to restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency – which was implicated in Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks – and David Lammy’s suggestion that weapons sales to Jerusalem could be restricted, it amounts to an appalling betrayal of Israel in its hour of need.

What message does it send to Britain’s friends and partners that it is willing to ditch its commitments, apparently due to domestic political pressure? It is a similar story in the United States, where Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the November presidential elections, appears to be signalling that she will be less supportive of Jerusalem in its war against Hamas.

There can be no lasting peace in the Middle East without the destruction of Hamas. The terrorists started this war when they launched a murderous pogrom on October 7, and the extent to which this has been forgotten in the West is shocking. Israel remains under attack, including from Hezbollah, as yesterday tragically showed. If Western leaders are unable to rediscover their courage, our enemies will be left in no uncertainty about how weak we have become.